Economic Growth Egypt Project #9108

Financial Inclusion in Egypt - Empower 8000 women

by Coptic Orphans

Project Report | Jun 13, 2012
B'edaya Annual Cycle 2011 Final Report

By Mary Guirguis | Program Associate

The project year started in December with 74 active projects in Assiut, Minia, Monofiya

and some slum areas in Cairo. Projects funded were in one of three categories: 1) Services such as a beauty salon; 2) Livestock such as raising poultry and cattle and 3) Retail such as a grocery store or a retail store selling shoes and outfits

following the unrest in Egypt, some projects faced challenging times due to the decrease in demand for services and products and the rocketing prices for animal feed.

Nonetheless, B’edaya’s Portfolio at Risk--Total outstanding balance of loans past due, divided by the active portfolio--stayed at 0.7% -- a record low. The repayment percentage for all projects is 99.3%.

Here is a story of one of the women this project helped during the previous period:

Awatef Kamel Abdel Messih, Monofiya (Lower Egypt)

Awatef's late husband worked in a grocery store before he died of a heart attack in 2001. He left Awatef behind to care for their five children. Unlike Hoda who at least had a pension to live on, Awatef and her family did not have any income before she started her B’edaya project. The family lived in a one-floor house made of bricks with barely any furniture.

Awatef started a poultry-raising project. She bought chicks and ducklings as she knew how to care for them and also had space available. When starting her project, she was smart enough not to invest all the money in buying birds; she kept a portion of the money to buy food. As the cycle of the project was fast, she quickly brought in income. This was key to the continuation of the project particularly because buying food for her chicks and ducklings was getting expensive day by day. Another challenge was the winter season which was taking a toll on the birds. Awatef did her best to keep them healthy by seeking veterinary care and keeping them in a warm place. To expand her project, Awatef started raising pigeons. She is now planning on having a little farm where she can raise birds as well as rabbits. In terms of repayment, she maintained a 100% repayment. Her project made a total net profit of EGP 2,350. Awatef said she was now able to give her children an allowance to buy what they liked. In addition, the project

brought in enough money for Awatef to financially support her son’s familyAttached is a fully transparent report that includes budgets and actuals, lessons learned, results, and five stories among the widowed mothers that the project supported.

Attachments:

B'edaya Annual Cycle 2011 Final Report (PDF)

Back to all project reports

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.